1:44pm:
Have figured out two things. The gongs I keep hearing aren’t according to any schedule. The gong is run by each person as they go to pray. And the piles of small and not so small brown pellets are deer shit. I read this in a guidebook and forgot. There are semi-tame deer that wander the ground here. I’m sitting on a shady bench and there are easily two dozen deer lying down, panting and trimming the grass within fifteen or twenty feet. After walking through this park the whole taking-off-ones-shoes-when-entering-a-home-or-temple makes a lot more sense.